5.3 PTR: Valley of Spirits Shut Down, Pet Battle Accuracy Changes

Today's newspost covers two very different types of battles on the PTR--Battlefield: Barrens and pet battle changes. Since our post last week on the Horde Rebellion, we've found a few more signs of strife in the area and it's now been included in the official 5.3 PTR Patch Notes. Most notably, the Valley of Spirits has been shut down in 5.3 under Kor'kron surveillance.

And if you prefer lighter combat, pet battles are getting some accuracy changes in 5.3 to keep combat from feeling repetitive.

Valley of Spirits Shut Down

The first time we previewed Orgrimmar on the PTR, Kor'kron guards were keeping the troll section of Orgrimmar on lockdown. But things have gotten even worse--they've terrified the NPCs to the point where the Valley of Spirits has been shut down. Players cannot access the Auction House, Banks, class trainers, profession trainers, and all vendors. (Suddenly, those pet snakes from Xan'tish like Black Kingsnake may be rare...)

In addition, the portal to Blasted Lands has been removed, and Vol'jin Loyalists now run through the streets shouting "Vol'jin lives! Rise up against Garrosh Hellscream! Today is de new dawn of de Horde!" before being killed by Kor'kron Overseers.

Here's what the Valley of Spirits NPCs have to say to you:

Class Trainer: Ya need trainin'? You picked a real inconvenient time to come pokin' through the Valley of Spirits.<Your trainer's voice lowers to a whisper>The Kor'kron watches our every move. Garrosh has the Valley of Spirits under his thumb. I could be killed if they saw me talkin' to you.Lucky for you, they don't ever see me. Lean in close, <name>. We gotta keep this on the down low.

Pet Battle Accuracy Changes in Patch 5.3

If you've thought that pet battles were getting a little repetitive, accuracy changes in Patch 5.3 should help. Fewer abilities in Patch 5.3 will have a 100% hit chance, and those that have a lower chance to hit will now hit harder--so using that ability will feel like a bit of a gamble. In addition, the base chance to dodge has been removed and the chance to miss high-level opponents will be reduced from 5% per level to 2% per level.

Greetings, trainers!

We wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the broad accuracy changes we’re making to Pet Battles in patch 5.3. The overarching goal behind these changes is to provide transparency to reduce the amount of uncontrolled randomness, where one miss often makes or breaks a match. Once patch 5.3 is live, you’ll see “hit chance” listed for all abilities, and this value will update if the pet is affected by abilities that increase or reduce the chance to hit.

In addition, we’ve removed the base 5% chance to dodge, and reduced the chance to miss opponents of higher levels from 5% per level to 2% per level. The end result should be that your attacks that should hit, will hit, and there’s greater incentive to get out there and fight higher-level pets for greater experience rewards.

In a turn-based game, randomness can be a lot of fun if handled correctly. Without a little randomness, the outcome of a match could be predicted to a high degree of certainty before the first swing, and that’s no fun. Randomness often works best when it is opt-in, often in exchange for greater attack power, longer duration, etc. In fact, many higher-damage battle pet abilities already had a reduced chance to hit, which will now be visible.

With the removal of the base dodge chance, we were left with a large number of abilities that now had a 100% hit chance. We’ve made a handful of minor modifications to some of these abilities, giving them greater damage in exchange for a reduced chance to hit. It’s worth noting that every battle pet type (e.g. Dragonkin) have at least one ability that hits 100% of the time, allowing you to opt-out of the randomness if you prefer a less risky strategy. (Check out the full list of basic abilities that have gained additional damage in exchange for reduced accuracy below.)

Finally, we’ve left the base 5% chance to gain a critical strike (for 1.5x damage), and +/- 10% damage variance on all abilities, at least for the time being. We believe that getting a crit generally feels good, and the damage variance is often enough to make a match a bit less predetermined without swinging the match heavily in one player’s favor.

We also wanted to thank the community for the great feedback we’ve gotten so far about Pet Battles. Keep it coming!

As noted earlier, the following basic attacks have had their damage increased by 5-15% and accuracy reduced by 5-15%:

Comments

Comment by Keelerak

And second of all, way to miss the point, you know what I meant man. Sheesh, canonically the one who "defeated" the lich king, if you like it more, was Tirion, aided by random "adventurers"

maybe you got lost in all that text so let me repeat it tirion shattered the frostmourne thus allowing the "adventurers" to finish him of. tirion was the helper

And if tirion hadn't been there, the lich king would had won since he killed everyone off. Hell, after he breaks shadowmourne, the players don't even have to attack the lich king, if you're patient enough, Tirion can finish him off by himself.

Who broke shadowmourne allowing the lich king to be defated in the first place? Tirion. Who placed the helm of damnation on Bolvar making him the new Lich King? Tirion. Who's statue is in the middle of dalaran, made of pure gold? Tirion's.

We were just nameless non-important mooks.

I know this is just an annoying nitpick and I bear you no ill will, but: Tirion destroyed FROSTMOURNE, Shadowmourne is an orange weapon Darion creates for players in a quest line. And the helm is called Helm of Domination, not "damnation"

Comment by MaidenM

on 2013-04-07T08:16:21-05:00

And if tirion hadn't been there, the lich king would had won since he killed everyone off. Hell, after he breaks shadowmourne, the players don't even have to attack the lich king, if you're patient enough, Tirion can finish him off by himself.

Who broke shadowmourne allowing the lich king to be defated in the first place? Tirion. Who placed the helm of damnation on Bolvar making him the new Lich King? Tirion. Who's statue is in the middle of dalaran, made of pure gold? Tirion's.

We were just nameless non-important mooks.

True, this is further reinforced in the short stories blizzard did about each leader. In sylvanas' story the adventurers are refered to... as the meaty lumps still lying where they fell. Lore wise we died. Not one player have been important in the lore heavy battles, it's always been the npcs.

Sorry, I know you know this, I just wanted to add my two cents.

Comment by Chaosrock

on 2013-04-07T16:16:18-05:00

The Orgrimmar stuff though seems like Horde-only content.

That means I won't get to see any of it, but even so, this is a really nice game development - the world is more dynamic that it has been before, and it is changing without needing player interaction.

You can roll a horde character...

Comment by Tush

on 2013-04-07T16:36:20-05:00

The Orgrimmar stuff though seems like Horde-only content.

That means I won't get to see any of it, but even so, this is a really nice game development - the world is more dynamic that it has been before, and it is changing without needing player interaction.

You can roll a horde character...

Can but does he want to? It would be almost forceing him to play as horde to see it. What if you were forced to be Alliance to gain lvls from 60 to 90?

And thous guys who has been talking about Tirion, Arthas and Illidian they weren't part of Alliance. Tirion has been neutral, Arthas was member of the Great Alliance (not the one we know now) and Illidan well he was never part of Alliance. So in that case would Kel'Thuzan be member of Alliance... Being human doesn't mean being member of the Alliance.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2013-04-07T22:25:52-05:00

And second of all, way to miss the point, you know what I meant man. Sheesh, canonically the one who "defeated" the lich king, if you like it more, was Tirion, aided by random "adventurers"

maybe you got lost in all that text so let me repeat it tirion shattered the frostmourne thus allowing the "adventurers" to finish him of. tirion was the helper

And if tirion hadn't been there, the lich king would had won since he killed everyone off. Hell, after he breaks shadowmourne, the players don't even have to attack the lich king, if you're patient enough, Tirion can finish him off by himself.

Who broke shadowmourne allowing the lich king to be defated in the first place? Tirion. Who placed the helm of damnation on Bolvar making him the new Lich King? Tirion. Who's statue is in the middle of dalaran, made of pure gold? Tirion's.

We were just nameless non-important mooks.

I know this is just an annoying nitpick and I bear you no ill will, but: Tirion destroyed FROSTMOURNE, Shadowmourne is an orange weapon Darion creates for players in a quest line. And the helm is called Helm of Domination, not "damnation"

/facepalm

I feel so silly :P You are correct, I meant to say Frostmourne, and for some reason ended up saying Shadowmourne xD.

Derp.

You are also correct about the helm, though you can't deny the name I gave it is more fitting xD

The Orgrimmar stuff though seems like Horde-only content.

That means I won't get to see any of it, but even so, this is a really nice game development - the world is more dynamic that it has been before, and it is changing without needing player interaction.

You can roll a horde character...

Can but does he want to? It would be almost forceing him to play as horde to see it. What if you were forced to be Alliance to gain lvls from 60 to 90?

And thous guys who has been talking about Tirion, Arthas and Illidian they weren't part of Alliance. Tirion has been neutral, Arthas was member of the Great Alliance (not the one we know now) and Illidan well he was never part of Alliance. So in that case would Kel'Thuzan be member of Alliance... Being human doesn't mean being member of the Alliance.

Again, I never said that they were part of the alliance.

I said that during WOTLK a human was the focal protagonist, and all the attention was exclusively on him (Tirion) and people have no problem with it. And on MoP Anduin has gotten a lot of protagonism too, showing up on almost every zone, and being involved in almost every major lore point, and again people have no problem with it. But have one orc show up in ONE quest in deepholm, ONE (non-canon) quest in the highlands, ONE questchain in hyjal, 1 dungeon and 1 raid, and suddenly people cry "SHOVED DOWN OUR THROATS"

I find that attitude to be highly hypocritical. That's all.

Comment by Lordplatypus

on 2013-04-08T00:55:34-05:00

I find that attitude to be highly hypocritical. That's all.

Tirion apears in what? He's a questgiver occasionally, he's found in the argent Colosseum as a repeating cutscene, he's a background character in one dungeon and one raid and fights with you for one freaking boss battle.

Anduin is just a recurring character, he pops up in one alliance-only questline, acts as a quest giver and is part of one cutscene alongside a tauren.

And he nearly gets killed in another questline.

Thrall however? You see his mug in 2 different dungeons, (Hour of Twilight, where you CANNOT get rid of him for an entire dungeon, Escape from Durnholde where well yeah.) both of which he hogs the spotlight in, the entire dragon soul raid might as well be renamed "Thrall" considering that the entirety of deathwing's fight was about giving thrall a easier shot, then deathwing up a bit until thrall and the aspects lazer him again. He has an entire questline and a starting experience devoted to him, deepholm.

Anduins a recurring character, thrall's a walking black hole, he absorbs the spotlight.

Comment by aLickyBOOMdown

Y Korkran ll bang u across the walls in Orgrimmar at sight. Removed, Blizz makes em fail always ffs :SPS: Vol'jin for the Warchief! It s trollin time for the Horde <3

Comment by Elfpriest276

on 2013-04-08T10:39:06-05:00

New warchief...would like new important characters

Comment by f0nZi3

on 2013-04-08T11:16:25-05:00

Its the Alliance that's going to have to come in and clean up the Horde's mess and put down Garrosh. Hence, there should definitely be Alliance content and when we're done saving your little horde THEN we'll go play elsewhere ;)

I don't think you've been paying attention to the story line and putting 1 and 1 together and coming up with an answer of 2. We (Alliance AND Horde) are going to be putting Garrosh down like the rabid dog he is.

Yes, there will be story lines and quests for Alliance that will differ from the story lines and quests for Horde. If the (current) Legendary quest line is any indication of how this will play out, I would suspect that Alliance and Horde will be setting aside our differences and teaming up with Vol'jin as the coordinator of the resistance movement (possibly including Varian Wrynn as an ally in this movement) and the Black Prince backing Vol'jin and offering any and all assistance to end the reign of Garrosh (also, look for Thrall to be in there somewhere I would suspect).

Comment by KingdomKnight

on 2013-04-08T12:41:30-05:00

With everything going on with the Trolls, I'm very weary of a Troll Warchief, which is where it seems we're headed. I can't wait to kill Garash, hoping Jaina follows soon after.

Comment by aunsarj

on 2013-04-08T15:56:52-05:00

With patch 6.0 Wrathion will be the leader of the Alliahorde. The war will be over once everyone realizes they only hate each other because a little sha had been in them all. The capitals will be open to all races, battlegrounds will become obsolete, and guilds will be able to incorporate both sides.

Orcs & Humans, living together, mass hysteria!

Comment by Egre2

on 2013-04-08T19:04:27-05:00

For the Saurfang! Let the old badass handle this messy problem! I vote Varok to be next Warchief!

Comment by Nemoboy

on 2013-04-09T04:22:53-05:00

Lady S for Warchief!

'Nough said.

^ this

Comment by Orruon

on 2013-04-10T00:06:34-05:00

I really hope this is as cool as it sounds.

Comment by jratt85

on 2013-04-10T00:10:18-05:00

One other thing of note is that in the Valley Of Strength Gamon is surrounded by Kor'kron Overseers that constantly taunt him but are unwilling to actually engage. I would post a screenshot but for some reason my scrrenshot button isnt working and I can't find it on the key bindings page.

Comment by zxj4k3xz

on 2013-04-14T01:04:13-05:00

i think this will be like Isle of Giant and Thunder King place, where horde and alli work together.

Comment by zxj4k3xz

on 2013-04-14T01:11:28-05:00

Anduins a recurring character, thrall's a walking black hole, he absorbs the spotlight.

i find Thrall much more interesting that Anduin or Tirion and do not mind that he does occasionally hog the spotlight.

Comment by Lordplatypus

on 2013-04-14T03:31:39-05:00

No offense, but then you have no taste at all.

Thrall's a flat idiot character that reeks of self-insert.

Tirion and Anduin both have their faults, beleifs, realistic limits, so on.

Thrall's none of that, he's just metzen's self-insert fanfic.

Comment by Thanasimos

on 2013-05-07T12:51:09-05:00

One little thing I'd like to point out in all this. A lot of argument is going back and forth about how supposedly Tirion was or was not Alliance, among other lore figures. While I'm not going to say Thrall was not Horde, he DID step down as leader. He did eventually join The Earthen Ring, and since he did all that, the ER has been his top priority, all the way until Vol'jin got his attention with the Hearthstone he sent to him. So in a sense, Thrall was effectively neutral through the whole expansion that everyone was complaining about a Horde character being "shoved down their throats." Just like Tirion was once Alliance, but then became neutral himself. Now, is Thrall still at the most basic level Horde? Certainly. But I don't believe he was more or less important to the storylines in Cata than Tirion was in Wrath.

So far we seem to always have a major character come to the forefront for a while. In BC, while it was more focused on the villains, (Kael and Illidan, former Blood Elf and Night Elf, respecitvely), it was fairly evenly split. Wrath, it fell mostly to Arthas (former Prince of Lordaeron, so formerly Alliance), Tirion (formerly Alliance), Darion (formerly Alliance himself, if you go back far enough. His father certainly was). Bolvar Fordragon (Alliance until the end). Horde got some play in Sylvanas, Saurfang, a couple other minor spots, but they certainly were not the focus.

Then Cataclysm hits, the focus shifts to Thrall, who steps down as Warchief. Yes, "formerly" Horde, as his Shamanistic duties with the Earthen Ring take precedence. While ends up being the character with the most exposure, he's far from the only big name in the forefront. Malfurion makes a comeback (yes, Hamuul as well, but he's the lesser known of the two), and some interesting things go on with the dwarven leaders (I'm not going to claim to know every detail, being a Horde player primarily, but even I know that was a significant event for Alliance) with the loss of Magni, and the reemergence of the Wildhammers and Dark Irons. Lets not forget both sides gained and lost territories after the Shattering.

Now it's pretty much evenly split again. Anduin, Varian, and other Alliance figures are at the forefront again, as are Horde characters like Garrosh (who will ultimatley not last), Vol'jin, Lor'themar and others. I don't believe there has ever truly been a dominant side over the course of the entire game. Which is kind of the point. The story shifts. Do they go about it the same way each expansion? No. But to cry about one or the other getting "shoved down your throat", so to speak, is ludicrous. If you don't enjoy following the character(s) being spotlighted? Fine. You don't have to play this expansion. Wait until the next one if it really bugs you that bad. But you're not the only player in the game. Players of the other faction deserve to have their favorites shine for a while as well. Personally, though I'm a Horde player, I enjoy seeing the stories of all characters. I could care less if the focus for the next two expansions became Alliance figures. I think their lore is just as entertaining. Everyone needs to stop bellyaching about who gets the focus for a short while. It always changes before long.

Well, I thought I'd just be making a small point, but realized I had much more to say on the issue. Sorry about that, but there it is.

TL,DR:

No one is being heavily favored over the other, despite your interpretations to the contrary. Stop crying about it.

Comment by Wowpixel

on 2013-05-12T17:09:59-05:00

I said that during WOTLK a human was the focal protagonist, and all the attention was exclusively on him (Tirion) and people have no problem with it. And on MoP Anduin has gotten a lot of protagonism too, showing up on almost every zone, and being involved in almost every major lore point, and again people have no problem with it. But have one orc show up in ONE quest in deepholm, ONE (non-canon) quest in the highlands, ONE questchain in hyjal, 1 dungeon and 1 raid, and suddenly people cry "SHOVED DOWN OUR THROATS"

I find that attitude to be highly hypocritical. That's all.

Not if you're Alliance and you're babysitting Thrall for the nth time.

Our frustration has been that Thrall is the story, while our heroes are standing in a throne room; or are quest givers with little backstory. A blip on the lore radar, while our enemy shows us the "world" and beyond.

If Blizzard doesn't want Warcraft anymore, fine. But don't put lipstick on that pig of WARCRAFT, and then in a deus ex move, make us lovey dovey with our sworn enemy.

To me, Horde just needs to die. 1001x. I careless about the poor me stories Thrall brings up. If he dies I'll rejoice. If Origimmar sinks into hell I'll celebrate. But come after my king and people...God have mercy on your souls.